To help tell the story of California’s Coastside region within a compact footprint, I collaborated with The Exhibits Dept. to create life-sized silhouette figures for each themed section of the museum. Each silhouette represented a character from a key moment in local history—an Ohlone woman, immigrant settlers, a railroad worker—and was paired with a tactile prop to enrich interaction. I designed collaged compositions inside each figure, layering historic imagery and elements of the natural environment to convey a broader collective experience rather than depicting any single individual. These designs became both visual storytelling tools and reference points for docents to use during educational talks.
This was an early concept test: a whaler figure layered with a nautical map and watercolor texture. While evocative, we realized that showing a specific face limited the storytelling. Instead, we chose to represent shared experiences through silhouettes filled with historic imagery—avoiding literal portraits in favor of collective memory.
Once we committed to the collage approach for the silhouettes, I explored a range of visual styles—experimenting with color, composition, texture, and image layering to find the right balance of abstraction and storytelling.
On the reverse side of each silhouette, we invited guests to reflect on their own stories—posing bilingual questions designed to spark personal connections with the themes of migration, place, culture, and identity.
